OTTAWA – Thursday’s federal budget appears to signal continuity in the Conservative government’s aboriginal policies, with new investments in First Nations jobs and infrastructure, but little in the way of new education dollars.

Despite the new money, the budget does not appear to signal the fundamental change in approach the Assembly of First Nations and other indigenous groups have called for.

A new First Nations Job Fund will put $109 million toward job training for on-reserve income-assistance recipients, with an additional $132 million to support the delivery of the program. It’s an effort to improve income assistance on reserves and better align it with provincial practices.

But the budget made clear that the funding will only be accessible to communities that make training mandatory for young income-assistance recipients.

The Opposition seized on the government’s move to tie benefit cheques to mandatory job training, likening it to a workfare program. NDP Aboriginal Affairs critic Jean Crowder said she was “shocked” at the provision, calling it a “paternalistic approach” and saying there are other ways to incentivize job training programs.

Experts have long said that higher unemployment rates on reserves can be stemmed through significant boosts in education funding. The gap in funding between reserve and non-reserve schools was a major concern of the grassroots indigenous Idle No More movement, which was galvanized by last year’s Conservative government omnibus budget bills.

But Thursday’s budget didn’t commit to closing that gap. The government is in the process of developing a First Nations Education Act and said it is “committing to sharing draft legislation with First Nations communities for their input.” It aims to pass the legislation by September 2014.

Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae told CBC’s Power and Politics that despite the government identifying aboriginal education as a priority, “they have not allocated any new money to deal with what everyone recognizes is dramatic underfunding in those programs.”

There are, however, two piecemeal education funding announcements in the budget.

Indspire, formerly the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, will receive $10 million over two years. A further $5 million over five years will go to Cape Breton University’s Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies.

The Assembly of First Nations didn’t have any immediate comment on the budget Thursday.

The budget also commits $54 million over two years to help resolve specific claims, which are priorities for some First Nations that are part of historic treaties.

And First Nations will also receive a share of what the Conservatives are calling “the largest and longest federal infrastructure plan in Canadian history.”

The government is renewing First Nations’ infrastructure investments of $155 million from the Building Canada fund over the next 10 years (in addition to funds from gas tax revenues that currently add up to about $25 million annually). The budget says that funding will be “at least equivalent” to previous funding.

That amount is in addition to the already planned $7 billion over 10 years for health and safety-related infrastructure projects such as water, wastewater treatment facilities, schools and housing on reserves.

Crowder criticized the lack of new money in those areas and said the government’s new infrastructure promises weren’t enough.

“It’s hard to imagine how you start dealing with poverty reduction unless you deal with some of these other matters.”

The budget also expanded the First Nations Land Management regime, which gives First Nations who opt in flexibility on reserve land use. And it renewed or maintained funding levels in areas such as aboriginal justice, family violence prevention and health services in First Nation communities.

mwoods@postmedia.com

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